Surf, Sun, and Big Family FUN!

[Happy Elf]

Welcome! I figured I'd better get this going before the craziness of back to school hits! Okay, okay...I'm really avoiding washing dishes and cleaning the kitchen. Hey a trip report sounds more fun right?

When and Where: We had 2 weeks of fun - July 15-23 was spent at New Smyrna Beach, and July 23-29 was spent at WDW.

Cast of Characters:
Janell (Me) a 34 year old developmental preschool teacher, mom of 2, and a Disney lover.

Ben (DH) a 34 year old marketing specialist at the Academy of Model Aeronautics, dad of 2, and Star Wars Geek!

Hannah, our 6 year old daughter, getting ready to start 1st grade, lover of all things stuffed, and thrill seeker.

Owen, our 3 year old son, lover of all things train related, Thomas, and Mickey.

Our extended Cast for the first week:
Pam (Ben's mom) otherwise known as Mimi. Is retired and watched our children for the past several years, volunteers on lots of committee's at church, and loves her 4 grandchildren.

Ken (Ben's dad) otherwise known as Pawpaw. He works for GM, enjoys working in his garden, and playing with his grandchildren.

Miranda (Ben's sister) an SLP for an elementary school, mom of 2.

Chris (our BIL) currently a district computer tech for a school system, even though his true love is being a history teacher, dad of 2, and a Star Trek geek....this will come into play later.

Cavin (our nephew) a 4 year old who is obsessed with Angry Birds.

Danica (our niece) a 14 month sweetheart who loved spending time with her Pawpaw.

Janell and Owen (yes, it's a little cheesy)

Owen, Ben, Miranda, Danica, Chris, Cavin, Ken, Pam, and Hannah

 

[Happy Elf]

Reserved for links!

 

[jenjolt]

I'm in!! Can't wait to hear all about it!

 

[Happy Elf]

We got up at 5:15 and got ready. We managed to get on the road 15 minutes early. Which for us is completely unheard of! We made great time getting to the airport. Got our luggage taken care of and Ben went to park the car. We had "brunch" at McDonald's when he got back. Pancakes for the kids, McGriddle for me, and a bagel for Ben. Then headed for security...which went easier then expected. I love it that the Indy airport has lines for families. It makes it much less stressful for me. Headed to our gate to find out our flight was delayed an hour and a half due to thunderstorms in Orlando.

Hannah colored and wrote in her journal for school while we waited.

Owen "read" a Thomas book.

"Look, Mom, Look, there's our plane!"

But wait, what? They just changed that so now we are leaving in an hour not an hour and a half. Ok, good! Oh look, they changed it again. Now we leave 30 minutes later. Ok, this is better. Hey, one more change. We ended up leaving about 15 minutes later than we should have. It was crazy to watch the times change so much, but was glad it did.

So we got settled in our seats and got ready for the 2 hour plane ride.

Hannah played a lot of DS and Owen fell asleep. Our flight was uneventful and we soon landed in Orlando.

We took a little ride on the pretend monorail.

Got our picture taken by Mickey!

Then went to get our suitcases. Happy to report they were all there. I am always nervous because in 2003 we were missing a suitcase...all my clothes.

Next, we headed down to pick up our rental car. Now, I had booked the car online so I thought this would be quick and painless. I could not have been more wrong!!!! First it took about 40 minutes and this was because she was trying to convince Ben to get a van or SUV instead of the car. He asked how much it would be and it came out to $1600, so he said NO!!!! So back to the mid-sized car, we finally get everything worked out and go get the car....so we think. They ended up putting a hold on the price of the van not the car, which left us with basically only the cash on hand. I was MAD!!!! He called right away, but they said it could take 3-5 days to fix it. At this point I was swearing we would never rent a car again! In the end it worked out ok, but I was crying at the time because I thought it was going to spoil our whole first week. At this point, there was nothing we could do so we headed to our motel for the night.

 

[Happy Elf]

I'm in!! Can't wait to hear all about it!

Glad to have you along!

 

[NancyLuvsMickey]

I'm here and ready to get my Disney fix!!!

$1600 to rent a van???

 

[Happy Elf]

I'm here and ready to get my Disney fix!!!

Glad you have you along!

$1600 to rent a van???

Crazy right!?!?! No way! The car was expensive enough!

 

[kschafer]

HERE!!

Glad the plane portion of your trip was painless

Rental agencies I'll always remember on our honeymoon being asked if we wanted to upgrade...no thank you...are you sure, it will only be $$ extra...no thank you...OK, well we don't have any compact cars so you will be upgraded for free.

 

[Azrael]

I like the pretend monorail too. It really is the first thing when getting off the plane that let's me know I'm back in Florida! Fantastic pics too.

 

[MeMom]

Family fun - I am all for it!

Flight times changing can start a trip off making everybody a little edgy.
I hope the weather got better by the time you got to Orlando.

 

[Happy Elf]

HERE!!

Glad the plane portion of your trip was painless

Rental agencies I'll always remember on our honeymoon being asked if we wanted to upgrade...no thank you...are you sure, it will only be $$ extra...no thank you...OK, well we don't have any compact cars so you will be upgraded for free.

Glad to have you along! That is too funny about the rental car on your honeymoon. I guess what was frustrating was I mistakingly thought we would sign, pay, and be on our way quickly! They kids were about to lose their minds! Me too!

I like the pretend monorail too. It really is the first thing when getting off the plane that let's me know I'm back in Florida! Fantastic pics too.

Glad to have another reader! Owen loved the pretend monorail (and the real one) because he loves trains! I was excited to see the palm trees!

Family fun - I am all for it!

Flight times changing can start a trip off making everybody a little edgy.
I hope the weather got better by the time you got to Orlando.

Yay! Glad to have you here! Well, you'll get to see more about the weather in my next update!

 

[teekathepony]

I'm in!!

 

[Happy Elf]

I'm in!!

Yay you made it over!

 

[PrincessAmongPrinces]

I'm joining in too! I can't wait to hear about your trip

 

[Happy Elf]

I'm joining in too! I can't wait to hear about your trip

Glad to have you along!

 

[Happy Elf]

First of all can I just say this free dining promotion is killing me because the dates cover my fall break and my spring break!!!! However, I know we can't afford it, so I'm just TRYING to ignore it!



Okay, back to the report!

So we had one night before we could get into the house in New Smyrna, so I was looking for a cheap place to stay for one night. Ben's work gave discounts for Motel 6, so we stayed at the Motel 6 West Gate. It was the smallest room I have ever seen and would not want to stay there for more than 1-2 nights, but it met our requirements.

It was clean, but SMALL!! Makes the value rooms at WDW look huge! We carried our bags up to the room and headed out and soon saw this:

Not the best picture, but notice the dark cloud in the picture! The yucky weather was still around!

We were headed to Downtown Disney for dinner because we hadn't eaten since our "brunch" back at the Indy airport. We parked and headed here:

After hearing everyone rave about this place we wanted to try it!

Waiting for Daddy to bring the food while we watch it rain!

Soon this was in front of us:

I had the Original and it was yummy!

Owen and Hannah both had the Pizza sandwich, they must have been good, because both my kids polished them off! You can see Owen wasn't waiting around for me to take a picture.

Ben had the Cannonballs sandwich, complete with the cheesy picture! He thought it was good.

It was still raining, so do we shop in the rain or head back to the room????

 

[MeMom]

First of all can I just say this free dining promotion is killing me because the dates cover my fall break and my spring break!!!! However, I know we can't afford it, so I'm just TRYING to ignore it!



After hearing everyone rave about this place we wanted to try it!

Waiting for Daddy to bring the food while we watch it rain!

It was still raining, so do we shop in the rain or head back to the room????

I called and booked a spring break free dining trip, just in case. Can't hurt to have it on hold. I probably won't have anyone to go with, so chances are I'll cancel it in February, but I didn't want to lose out on the deal, just in case a miracle happens.

We've eaten outside at Earl's with rain coming down, too. That setting looks very familiar. Glad you guys liked the sandwiches. The bread is so good!

Shop or go back to the room?
A faithful DISer would shop.
An exhausted DISer would shop just a tiny little bit and then go back to the room.

 

[kathleen27]

Cute pictures of the kids!

Sounds like you had a good trip!

That's a crazy price for a van!


Dinner sure looks good!

I hope you stayed to shop despite the rain!

 

[teekathepony]

Alright, I really have to find time to eat at EOS this year. I've never been there and everyone raves about it! Sorry it rained on your first day, I hope it cleared up for the rest of the trip!

 

[Native NYer]

Joining in!

Now going back to read.